February 23, 2018
By Melanie Ehrenkranz
When you’re having a picnic, (click here) the last thing you want is ants, and when you’re a billionaire venture capitalist, it’s equally irksome to have plebeians accessing the beach next to your 89 acres of land. On Thursday, Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla filed a 151-page petition with the Supreme Court in order to fight to keep the public off the shoreline near his property.
Khosla purchased the property in 2008 for $32.5 million, which stretches along Martins Beach in San Mateo County, according to SFGate. He reportedly padlocked the gate to the shoreline in September 2010, barring access to the beach the previous owners had allowed since the 1920s.
Khosla’s appeal with the Supreme Court argues that he shouldn’t have to get a permit to lock the public access gates, claiming the California Coastal Act is a violation of his constitutional rights. The California Coastal Act (click here) was enacted in 1976 to ensure the public had access to the California shoreline....
This is a very viable law because it was enacted by the public through a process widely recognized in California as the right by the people.
Over forty years ago, (click here) voters concerned about coastal development and its impact on public access and coastal resources worked for Proposition 20, the California Coastal Conservation Initiative. This Initiative, passed in 1972, created the Coastal Commission...
These processes of "people power" in California has not changed for a very long time and I don't expect that to be regarded lightly by any court. Obviously that is the case otherwise Mr. "Jerk" Sun Microsystems Khosla would not be petitioning the Supreme Court.
Every interested group should be joining the public case if not already engaged. This is the same high handed attitudes we are seeing at the federal level with public lands and national parks. It is outrageous.
